


You've Got Red on You

by Hekmugi



Category: Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Hurt, Injury, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22998232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekmugi/pseuds/Hekmugi
Summary: That looked like it hurt.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	You've Got Red on You

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked to make a prompt where the Sky Pirates were not okay. You asked for it.

“C’mon, we’re leaving!”

“Right behind you, man!”

The pair leaped over piles of smouldering rubble and ducked under collapsing beams. The interior groaned under the weight of its impending gravity. Another attempt at the Ruby Pure Heart had been met with blade and blaster, and now the mobile base of the Sky Pirates was careening to the earth.

“Where’s Adorabat?” Mao Mao shouted, slicing through a mess of sparking electric wires.

“I thought she was with you?!” Badgerclops responded. “The smoke’s too thick to see anything above us!”

The hero slid under a gap in a fresh pile of smouldering machinery. “We don’t have time for this!”

“Wait, there’s the aerocycle!” Badgerclops relayed, using the fan feature of his arm to dissipate the encroaching smoke. They both let out a sigh of relief as they saw the perky blue bat perched on the handlebars, waving a friendly wing at them.

“Adorabat!” they both shouted.

“Hey guys,” Adorabat smiled, flapping away smoke, “can we get outta here, now?”

“Yes, start the engine!” Mao Mao called out, pole-vaulting through the air with Geraldine in hand.

  
Adorabat slapped the controls until the engine roared to life, shooting a fresh blue flame out the back end. Mao Mao was the first to land in the pilot’s seat, with Badgerclops crawling into the back shortly after.

  
“How’d you get here so fast, anyway?” Mao Mao asked.

“Uh…” Adorabat gave a flap of her wings.

“Oh, right.”

Badgerclops put his helmet on, putting his claws on Mao Mao’s shoulders. “Can we freakin’ go now?!”

  
“Right, right! We’re outta here!” Mao Mao said, slamming the pedal. The aerocycle rocketed out of the porthole, leaving the airship to continue its course to the forest. Mao Mao performed a half-circle maneuver, arching back towards the falling airship so he could survey the aftermath.

“I… think we might’ve overdone it this time.” Badgerclops mumbled over comms.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m su-”

They all shielded their eyes as the sky flashed orange. The mushroom cloud of the detonating airship caused a ring of fire to erupt in a full circle around the crash site. A fresh pillar of acrid smoke billowed into the afternoon air, and the soundwaves of the blast echoed through the valley. The reverberations turned into a dull roar that continued to rock the area for several seconds.

“You were saying?” Badgerclops said with a shove.

“Well…” Mao Mao began to sweat, “let’s just wait for them to say they’re okay.”

* * *

Orangusnake let out a low, pained groan as the ringing in his ears began to fade. He had no idea how long he had been out, or if he had even lost consciousness. The last thing he remembered was being knocked into a wall as the Sheriff’s Department detonated their already-unstable reactor core.

As he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a shield of rubble surrounding him. The haphazard metal plates and stone flooring rested on a canopy of metal scaffolding, giving him protection from an otherwise painful and unfortunate demise.

Shaking his head clear, he began to make out the outlines of his fallen comrades within the alcove. The activated bowtie of Boss Hosstrich still shone its bright blue glow, indicating that he, too, fell in the sudden detonation. Ramaraffe was sat up, nursing her crooked neck. She appeared distressed as she massaged the bent metal.

“Boss…” Ramaraffe sobbed, “my neck’s all bent again.”

“Hold on, I’ll fix it.” Orangusnake mumbled, rising to his feet with a wince. His lower back was strained from the hard landing, and he already knew it was going to smart for the next week. He mentally cursed the cat and his antics as he placed gentle hands on Ramaraffe’s bent neck.

“Take a deep breath,” Orangusnake instructed, looking away, “it’s only going to hurt for a second.”

“Ah jeez, do we always gotta-”

The dull thud of bent metal snapping back into its original form was followed by a yelp from the giraffe. It was best to do it when she was distracted, otherwise she’d just begin to hyperventilate and feel it more.

Ramaraffe recoiled on reflex, pulling out of her boss’s grip as he sighed. The nauseating feeling of the procedure took him a second to get over, but at least it was finished.

“Boss Hosstrich,” Orangusnake called out, “are you awake?”

  
“Mm. Reckon I am.” the ostrich called out, his hat covering his face. He pulled the hat upwards, sporting a fresh black eye from getting punched in the face by the badger.

“I could use one ‘a them ice packs though.”

“And I could use a vacation,” Orangusnake grumbled, lowering a hand to his subordinate, “now let’s find a way out of here.”

“Blasted ruby,” Hosstrich muttered as he took his boss’s hand, “why don’t we just do one ‘a them air BnB’s next time?”

“You know how I feel about the service industry.” Orangusnake glared.

“Guys!” Ramaraffe called out to the pair. “Where’s Ratarang?”

Orangusnake put a finger to his chin. “Good question… Ratarang! Where’d you run off to?” the cobra called out.

“I think I remember him chasing after the blue one,” Hosstrich recalled, “about when the reactor blew up.”

“And that was at least a couple dozen feet away…” Orangusnake mused.

At once, the three looked to one another with eyes wide open. Their hearts sunk as they took in the devastation around them, and at once they began to force the rubble out of their path.

“Ratarang!” Orangusnake called out once more, hefting massive plates of steel aside. He hefted heavy metal bars out of the way while Ramaraffe and Hosstrich set out clearing smaller debris to make a climbable edifice. By degrees, the pair began to clear a path to the open air, Orangusnake leading his party out of the fresh hole they had made. Surveying the vicinity of the devastated airship, they noticed that the side had been blown wide open, and the top several floors had collapsed into a twisted mess of sparking wire and burning wood.

  
Hosstrich removed his hat, gawking at the fresh ruin that had been brought to their home. Were he less of a villain, a tear may have fallen from his eye as he watched everything they owned go up in flames.

“Don’t just stand there, start searching!” Orangusnake called back to the immobilized ostrich, already shoving aside piles of rubble.

Hosstrich snapped to, and with a pull of his necktie he began to search the area for heat signatures. The task was made difficult by the amount of burning material, but he knew the signature for their companion would be small.

The villains took up thirds of the area to themselves, with Ramaraffe twisting her neck all around the area in a heated search. Orangusnake resorted to bashing entire sections of the ruined ship around with a massive steel beam that he wielded in his fists. Hosstrich scanned the area thoroughly, looking for any sign of a body under the cooling metal debris.

“Ratarang, this isn’t funny anymore! Come out here this insta-”

Orangusnake jerked his head downwards, feeling something wet on his foot.

A small pool of crimson had enveloped his foot, pooling in the dented floor. He followed the trail back with his eyes, discovering a trickle from underneath a small pile of twisted metal.

“Guys, over here!” Orangusnake ordered, beginning to toss the topmost debris away.

Ramaraffe realigned herself and Hosstrich began to cross over to his boss, Orangusnake making enough headway to begin to see into the bottom of the pile. The diminutive rodent laid on the ground, unconscious in a growing pool of red.

Orangusnake turned his head away, feeling bile forming in the back of his throat. He steeled himself, looking down once more at the rodent.

  
“R-ratarang?” he called out with a wavering voice. With a tentative finger, he nudged the rat on his side, rolling his body into full view. As his body turned, a squirt of red liquid shot up at the cobra. It splattered across his head, causing him to fall backwards with a cry. Recovering, he placed a shaking palm to his stained face. The hot substance made his skin go pale as he smeared it off of him, looking down at it. He felt his vision blur as it shined on his fingers, greasing its way down his fingers and dripping onto the floor.

Hosstrich ran up beside his boss, looking at his face.

“By the stars, what is that on your face?”

“I-It’s-” Orangusnake felt his heart fall through his chest, a bottomless pit carving its way through him. “I-it’s-”

“Looks like hydraulic fluid.”

The boss blinked a couple times.

“What?”

Hosstrich reached over with his trusty handkerchief, patting the cobra’s cheek clean.

“Yep, all this broken machinery’s spewin’ the stuff all over... That stuff is an absolute devil to get outta your clothes.”

“B-b-but, Ratarang, he’s-”

A low groan came from the bottom of the pile.

“Ah criminy, I feel like a slice ‘a pizza over here,” the rat lamented, “what’s a guy gotta do to get a shower over here?”

“Ratarang!” Orangusnake cried, jumping to his feet and tackling the emerging rodent with his arms. He pulled his companion close, nuzzling him with the side of his head as the rodent put his feeble hands against the cobra’s face.

“Hey, hey! What gives?!”

“I thought I’d lost you forever!” Orangusnake sobbed, looking at the stained roden’s figure with quivering lips. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”

“I don’t even know what you’re talkin’ about…” Ratarang said, putting his arms down, “But… I’m glad to see you too, I guess.”

“My sweet Ratarang...” Orangusnake cooed, brushing his head with a tender thumb.

The reunion was cut short by the sound of an approaching motor. The aerocycle lowered itself within the hull’s breach, and its occupants looked at the villains with a mixture of confusion and concern.

“Oh, uh-” Orangusnake cleared his throat, “We’re okay!”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the scare, and thank you for reading!


End file.
